
LG Uplus unveils new lineup of foreigner-specific mobile plans
The new lineup, unveiled on Wednesday, includes seven monthly plans ranging from 37,000 won to 85,000 won (approximately $27 to $62). All plans come with free international calling of up to 90 minutes per month, as well as enhanced roaming benefits when subscribers travel abroad.
Customers who activate LG Uplus's Roaming Pass add-on will receive double the usual data allowance while overseas, according to the company.
Those under the age of 34 who sign up for the new plans will receive bonus data ranging from 4GB to 60GB per month, depending on their chosen package, as the company targets younger users, many of whom are in Korea for work or education.
This is the largest foreigner-specific mobile package release by a Korean telecom provider. The plans are being offered as a promotional product, and sign-up is only available through Dec. 29 this year. Sign-up is open to any foreign resident holding a valid Residence Card, either online or at physical LG Uplus stores.
LG Uplus has designated 67 stores nationwide in areas with high concentrations of foreign residents as specialized service locations. These branches offer mobile service documentation in 17 languages, including English, Vietnamese, Lao, Chinese and Russian. More than 170 multilingual consultants have also been deployed to assist with service sign-ups and customer support.
Further plan details are available on LG Uplus's dedicated website for international customers at: mglobal.lguplus.com/service/plan.
According to 2024 year-end data from South Korea's Ministry of Justice, the country is now home to roughly 2.1 million foreign residents, representing over 4 percent of the national population.
Among them, more than 2 million are long-term residents. Recognizing this growing demographic, LG Uplus said the new offering is part of its strategy to diversify and expand within a mature domestic telecom sector.
The company said the new plans were developed based on internal research that identified specific communication needs among foreign residents. These included a desire for easier, more affordable ways to stay in touch with family and friends abroad, as well as reliable data access both domestically and when traveling to their home countries.
Park Jun-su, who oversees foreign customer and device operations at LG Uplus, said, 'With Korea's telecom market reaching maturity, foreign residents represent an important source of future growth. We aim to offer services that create real value and deliver a differentiated experience for this community.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
![[Photo News] Ioniq 6 face-lift debuts with class-leading range](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwimg.heraldcorp.com%2Fnews%2Fcms%2F2025%2F07%2F28%2Fnews-p.v1.20250728.b4605608a0cb4369920ee778de9e6106_T1.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
![[Photo News] Ioniq 6 face-lift debuts with class-leading range](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fall-logos-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fkoreaherald.com.png&w=48&q=75)
Korea Herald
36 minutes ago
- Korea Herald
[Photo News] Ioniq 6 face-lift debuts with class-leading range
Hyundai Motor Company on Monday launched a face-lifted version of its flagship electric sedan, the Ioniq 6, in the Korean market — the first update since the model's debut in 2022. The Korean automaker has enhanced battery capacity and aerodynamic design, achieving the longest driving range among electric models in Korea at up to 562 kilometers on a single charge. The price starts at 48.56 million won ($35,150). (Hyundai Motor Group)


Korea Herald
36 minutes ago
- Korea Herald
S. Korea proposes major shipbuilding investment in US ahead of tariff negotiation deadline
South Korea has proposed a multibillion-dollar shipbuilding investment package in the United States as part of ongoing negotiations to avert steep US tariffs as the Aug. 1 deadline for such a deal nears, government sources said Monday, noting the proposal appears to have been well received. According to the multiple sources, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan held talks with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday in New York, during which he presented the proposal, dubbed "Make American Shipbuilding Great Again". The MASGA project, whose name is inspired by US President Donald Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again", involves large-scale investments by South Korean private shipbuilders in the US The package includes not only capital investment but also financial support, such as loans and guarantees backed by Korean institutions. Public financial institutions, such as the state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea, are being considered as potential participants in providing financial support for the MASGA initiative, the source said. Lutnick, who is seen as a key decision-maker in the bilateral tariff negotiations, reportedly responded positively to the proposal and expressed satisfaction with Seoul's offer. As part of the ongoing talks, Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol is expected to visit the US later this week and is likely to meet with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday. Seoul aims to finalize a trade agreement with Washington before the Aug. 1 deadline to reduce the 25 percent reciprocal tariff and sector-specific duties imposed on South Korean goods under the Trump administration. The reciprocal tariffs were initially implemented April 9 but were immediately suspended by President Trump for 90 days to allow for negotiations. The suspension has since been extended, but Washington indicated plans to resume enforcement starting Aug. 1 unless a deal is reached. (Yonhap)


Korea Herald
2 hours ago
- Korea Herald
Why some Koreans considered iPhone ‘half-baked' until it could replace their wallet and record calls
For more than a decade, a certain group of South Korean iPhone users passed around the same dry joke online: features like Apple Pay, call recording and transit card support would "only come to iPhone after unification with North Korea." The comparison wasn't literal. It was a way of saying these features felt so delayed that they belonged to the realm of the near impossible. But as of now, that punchline has expired. On July 22, Apple and T-money officially launched support for Korea's nationwide transit card system on iPhones and Apple Watches. It was the last major item on a long list of missing functions that had, for many, made the iPhone feel "half-baked." While there has been no official survey or data on how many iPhone users in Korea viewed the device as incomplete, the frustration was very real, and very specific for some. For years, Galaxy users could pay at almost any store using Samsung Pay's MST technology, swipe into buses and subways with built-in postpaid transit cards, and record phone calls natively. iPhone users, by contrast, had to make tradeoffs. 'I stayed with Galaxy because I had to,' said Kim Min-seok, a 38-year-old sales team manager at a mid-sized electronics firm in Seoul. 'Call recording isn't optional in my job. We handle client contracts over the phone all the time. If I missed something and had no record, I was the one to blame.' He recently switched to an iPhone 15 after his company approved the use of SK Telecom's 'A.' app, which enables call recording through a separate VoIP system. But the transition, he said, still feels like a compromise. 'It works, but it's not the same. On Galaxy, it's just there. You press a button and it's done.' This isn't a niche concern. In Korean business culture, verbal instructions and agreements often carry weight. As a result, call recording is not seen as invasive, but practical. Until recently, iPhones had no way to support it, due to Apple's global privacy policies and refusal to allow third-party access to its native call interface. 'I had friends who loved Apple, but they couldn't use it because of that one feature,' Kim said. 'It wasn't about price or loyalty. It was about function.' Other features were equally consequential. Samsung Pay, launched in 2015, quickly became the de facto standard for mobile payments in Korea. It supported virtually all credit and debit cards and worked on nearly every terminal, including those without NFC support. Apple Pay, which depends entirely on NFC, arrived in Korea only in March 2023 through Hyundai Card, nine years after its global debut. Even then, it launched with limited card compatibility and worked at only a fraction of merchants. According to Hyundai Card's PR director, Shim Hyun-jung, the rollout was 'technically successful but commercially narrow.' 'We knew Korean users had waited a long time,' she said. 'But the infrastructure wasn't ready, and the local financial ecosystem had to adjust to Apple's model.' Apple Pay's arrival spurred a surge in Hyundai Card signups, especially among younger users. But expansion stalled as other card issuers hesitated over Apple's transaction fee demands. The service remains exclusive to Hyundai Card to this day. Not all iPhone users saw these delays as a problem. 'I didn't think of my iPhone as lacking anything,' said J.Y., a 24-year-old university student in Seoul who asked to be identified by her initials only. 'I have not really considered Apple Pay as a basic smartphone feature. I already carry a wallet in my bag.' She has used iPhones since high school and says she prefers them for the design and the way they work with her iPad and MacBook. 'I don't feel like I'm missing out. I just like how it all fits together.' Her view reflects a different kind of user, perhaps more common, shaped more by Apple's ecosystem than by Korea's mobile-first infrastructure. Among Koreans in their 20s, especially women, iPhone usage is dominant. A 2024 Gallup Korea survey found that 75 percent of women in this age group used iPhones, compared to just 55 percent of men in their 20s. 'I think the idea of a 'half-baked iPhone' is mostly a guy thing,' J.Y. added, laughing. 'My female friends and I hardly consider features like Apple Pay or Samsung Pay as basic functions of a smartphone.' Still, for a subset of Apple fans in Korea, the missing features were deeply felt. Nowhere was this more visible than in Asamo (short for "iPhone User Group" in Korean), a massive online community hosted on Naver Cafe. With more than 2.3 million members, Asamo has long served as a hub for Apple users seeking workarounds, complaining about limitations and sharing news. 'We weren't trying to be negative. We just wanted our phones to function like they should in Korea,' said Jang Soo-min, a 31-year-old marketing professional and longtime Asamo moderator. 'Galaxy users could pay, ride the bus and record a call with no effort for such a long time. iPhone users couldn't. It felt like we were using the same device with half the functionality.' Jang points out that iPhone users often had to carry physical cards, memorize instructions during calls and explain to others why their phones couldn't do what was expected. 'It was embarrassing sometimes,' he said. Jang was one of the first to test Apple Pay on day one, and he set up T-money transit support the morning it launched on both his iPhone and Apple Watch. 'This is the Korean Apple ecosystem I've been waiting for,' he said. 'Not new. Just finally complete.' Still, even with the feature list filled out, Apple's market share in Korea remains limited. As of July 2025, Gallup Korea estimates Apple holds 24 percent of the domestic market, with Samsung commanding 72 percent. 'This isn't going to cause a mass switch from Galaxy to iPhone,' said Hwang Ah-yeon from the Korea Consumer Agency. 'The people who wanted iPhones already had them. This just makes their lives easier.' And for those who switched years ago, the arrival of long-promised features isn't cause for celebration. It's more like quiet vindication. 'We made do for years,' said Jang. 'Now it does work, though not perfectly. That might not sound exciting for every iPhone user in Korea, but for those of us waiting for it, it means everything.' mjh@